Charitable giving in Britain

Charitable giving in Britain

Where now and what next?

Karl Wilding | NCVO Public PolicyEmail: karl.wilding@ncvo.org.uk Twitter: @karlwilding

Contents

• The charitable sector• Trends in charitable giving & philanthropy• Changing attitudes and behaviours• What are giving and philanthropy for?

The charitable sector

Income and expenditure

Counting the Cuts

Trends in giving behaviour

How much is given in total?

Our survey of ‘general charities’

produces an estimate of

£8.2bn

for the year 2009/10

A survey of philanthropists

produces an estimate of

£872mfor the year

2008/09

Legacies

£1.8bnOur survey of individuals produces an estimate of

£9.3bnfor the year 2011/12

3. What proportion of the population give?

• The proportion of people donating to charitable causes in a typical month has decreased over the last year, from 58% to 55%.

• Giving this year seems to have decreased back to a more typical level; apart from the dip in 2008/09, the proportion giving was stable at 56% between 2006/07 and 2009/10.

• Over half of adults gave in a typical month in 2011/12, equivalent to 28.4 million donors.

• This year the decline in participation (from 55% to 58% in 2010/11) has outweighed the rate of increase in the adult population.

28.4million people

We estimate it’s…

4. How many people give in a typical month?

5. How much do donors typically give each month?

• The median monthly gift to charity in 2011/12 was £10 per donor. • The mean is much higher, at £27/month per donor. That’s because a small number of

donors give some large amounts.

Med

ian:

£10

/ m

onth

Mea

n: £

27/

mon

th

Who

giv

es?

6. Why are large donations important?

£5.6bn

x

6% of donors give £100 or more, 40% of total giving

94% of donors give less than £100, 60% of total giving

=

=

£3.7bn

x

What about major philanthropists?

• Research by Beth Breeze of Kent University estimates that 80 major gifts from individual philanthropists worth an additional £872m in 2009/10.

• This fell from 100 gifts worth a collective £1.0bn in 2008/09

Gifts of £1m+ were worth

£872mfor the year

2009/10

The civic core

Proportion of donors giving and proportion of total amount donated by cause, 2010/11

What causes do people give to?

http://data.ncvo-vol.org.uk/a12q35

Source: NCVO/CAF

What will shape future giving?

Trends in [donor] demographics, attitudes and behaviours

• 1985 to 2010 number aged 85 & over doubled from 0.7 million to 1.4 million (from 1% to 2% of population)

PROJECTION – By 2035:• Number 85 & over will be 2.5 times larger than in

2010, reaching 3.5 million (5% of population)

• People 65 and over = 23% population (now 17%)

Source: ONS 2012

The Older Old

Donor attitudes (BSAS 2003)• Investors: £10+/month

• believe that there is quite a lot of poverty in Britain today, and they are

• more likely than Bystanders or Contributors ascribe poverty to social injustice

Views on poverty (BSAS 2003)

Bystanders Contributors InvestorsThere is quitea lot of poverty in Britain (57)

54 58 61

An inevitable partof modern life (36)

34 38 35

Laziness or lackof will power (28)

31 28 13

Because of injusticein our society (19)

18 16 30

Changing attitudes: donors, buyers or investors?

• Some evidence of a marketisation of charitable giving

• Shift from ‘altruistic’ giving to buying/shopping– Heightened by recession

Type of income, 2000/01 – 2009/10 (£ billions)

Source: NCVO/TSRC, Charity Commission

Source: Co-op Ethical Consumerism Report 2010

Changing attitudes: donors, buyers or investors?

• Giving as an investment (which requires a return)– Philanthrocapitalism– Impact investing– Blended Value

• Habits/culture of equity analysis– Scaling, metrics

• And financial tools – SIBs, loans (patient capital,

microfinance)

Digital natives: children starting secondary school will be your core fundraisers in 5 years’ time

• Smartphone ownership:

• Adults: 27%• Teenagers: 47%

Conflicting attitudes towards giving & fundraising

• Professionalisation• Asking: fundraising

methods

Negative attitudes towards giving

• Resource allocation: where most needed?

• Public benefit is not universally agreed

• Deserving vs undeserving poor

Negative attitudes: giving by the rich

Changing attitudes: what are giving and philanthropy for in Squeezed Britain?

Changing attitudes: what are giving and philanthropy for in Squeezed Britain?

So...

• Charitable impulse remains strong, stable• Supported by tax and (just) regulatory

environment• No fatigue: but reliance on a civic core• What comes after the boomers?• Main attitudinal change in attitude is shift to

investor mindset• Tech: innovators dilemma?